Las Vegas, Nev. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) today announced a total of $53,270,816 in grant funding awarded to health care providers in Nevada by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The new funding provides $47,480,089 for safety net hospitals that serve vulnerable populations and $5,790,727 for specialty providers in small metropolitan areas and urban hospitals with rural Medicare designations in Nevada. This funding comes as a result of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress in March.
“With more than half of the total cases in Nevada reported within the last thirty days, this new funding comes at a crucial moment for our state. Rural regions across the state, communities of color and low-income families are the most at risk for COVID-19. This new funding will provide necessary resources to the communities that need them by helping bridge the medical care accessibility gap. I’ll continue working to ensure that Nevadans have essential, life-saving resources as they continue to respond to this health crisis.”
BACKGROUND:
The new round of funding was allocated through the bipartisan CARES Act and the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, which allocated $175 billion in relief funds to hospitals and other health care providers, including those disproportionately impacted by this pandemic. Senator Cortez Masto supported this legislation in the Senate.
In May, HHS announced $10 billion in funding to almost 4,000 rural health care providers including hospitals, health clinics, and health centers—over $70 million of which went to providers across Nevada. In this current round of funding, HHS is expanding the existing payment formula to include certain special rural Medicare designation hospitals in urban areas as well as others that provide care in smaller non-rural communities. These may include some suburban hospitals that are not considered rural but serve rural populations and operate with smaller profit margins and more limited resources than larger hospitals.
Additionally, HHS announced that the Enhanced Provider Relief Fund Payment Portal application process is now open to dentists who may not have previously been eligible to receive funding through the Provider Relief Fund. Eligible dentists will receive a reimbursement of two percent of their annual reported patient revenue and will have until July 24, 2020 to apply for funding through the Enhanced Provider Relief Fund Payment Portal.
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